Recently over from his native South Africa, Steve Botha has been assigned the task of kick-starting the Sharks Rugby Academy and helping the UAE create more outstanding players.
From recruiting players to teaching them the Sharks way, Botha has his hands full as he tries to get his head into UAE rugby. Fortunately he was able to take enough time out of his busy schedule to talk to Sport360°’s Kenny Laurie.
How did you first get into rugby?
It wasn’t a choice of mine, I was only three days old when I saw my first rugby match. My dad was playing for Natal, my mother had just come out of hospital and we went down to Durban and that was my first experience of rugby.
My mum played provincial hockey and my dad played provincial rugby so I had a choice on a Saturday and obviously rugby was a better option for me and my brothers. We always chose rugby. Then I played all the way through school, played at university then got contracted to Natal before I went to play in Italy.
So moving in to coaching was an obvious choice as well?
I was a teacher and I started coaching when I did that in 1991. I was involved in school coaching for five years before I got asked to go to Durban High School. I had had enough of teaching in the classroom and I wanted to get on the field, so I went to Durban before I got asked to run a sub-section of the Sharks, where I coached for four years, I got into Natal that eventually led to me coming to the UAE. Thank goodness I got the job here.
What was it that interested you about the UAE?
My wife came over in 2011 to visit my sister in Doha and she just loved it. She said it was great to bring up kids here because it is so safe, and everything else that goes with it. That was the one thing that really attracted her.
When the job came up with the Sharks academy, it was a great opportunity for me. I thought we’ll take the chance and travel. Hopefully, we are here for the long haul to get rugby up and running in the UAE.
What have been the major challenges of starting from scratch here?
Dubai is in really good shape, I went to the HSBC festival and the Al Ain festival and I did a coaching stint with the Dubai Exiles Under- 15 boys. I have recruited quite well with Dubai…we have 28 boys here now.
Al Ain, for the small town it is out there, we are doing quite nicely and have 17 boys. Abu Dhabi has been a struggle, I think the Harlequins have really got a stronghold on youth rugby there so that has been a real battle. I have three boys in Abu Dhabi and hopefully we have another group to join.
It would be great ff we can get 10 to 20 boys in Abu Dhabi by the end of the year. Harlequins are doing very well and I understand perfectly why but if kids want to try a different style of rugby then it’s their prerogative. Trying to do office work and recruiting has been a bit of a handful. Abu Dhabi will take off I’m sure in the second quarter if we do our homework properly.
Al Ain should keep growing and I’m confident there will be 20-plus after this quarter. So, I’m very excited and there’s some very nice talent. I’m amazed at the talent, there are some small details that need to be worked but there is some tremendous potential if we can keep them here, which is another problem.
You mentioned a different syle of rugby. What is the Sharks style?
If you see the Sharks, they play a total 15-man rugby. Others play a very forwards-oriented, kick, play for position type of rugby. The Sharks teachers appreciate a more expansive 15-man game that is more skills based and not so forward crashing and bashing.
I think they have played quite successfully that way all these years.
Rugby teams are known for some of their off-the-field antics. Are there any particular stories you can recall from your playing days?
There’s one that I’ll never forget. We had a manager at Natal. He was a big man, well overweight, but a lovely person. He would always tell us “if you’re not on the bus, you’re not on the bus”, he would say that if the bus leaves at eight o’clock, if you’re not there, it is your problem.
We played a game, the Blue Bulls from Pretoria, we had beaten them 66-something so went to play them (with a swagger) and we got hammered, I think 62-6. .
When you get hammered there isn’t much you can do other than get back to the training pitch and sort it, but some of the boys really stuck in the liquor that night and got horribly out of sorts.
We had to leave the hotel for the plane at about half six in the morning. There was a couple of players, I won’t mention names, that couldn’t make the bus and had to catch their own flights back to Durban. Luckily they got back but that was the coach, if you weren’t on the bus, you weren’t on the bus.
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